Even though a 90-day delay was ordered in the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program by the NTIA on April 22, the deployment of fiber continues at apace from coast to coast, according to Gary Bolton, president and CEO, Fiber Broadband Association.
Private capital is hard at work building out fiber with AT&T set to pass a milestone of 30 million homes next month on its way to 50 million homes by 2029. Rising quickly, Frontier Communications, which is being acquired by Verizon, will pass 10 million homes with fiber by the end of 2025, growing 20 percent year over year. As of late 2024, Verizon’s Fios service passed 17.8 million locations with fiber, with plans to pass 650,000 more in 2025. Through the acquisitions of Lumos and MetroNet, T-Mobile plans to reach 12 to 15 million households or more with fiber by the end of 2030.
So far, 88 million homes have been passed by fiber; 68 million are unique homes, and the rest have multiple fiber passings. The addressable market is currently 70 million homes that need to get their first passing, and another 77 million homes that will receive a redundant passing.
“There’s about 149 million homes left to go in the total addressable market,” Bolton said. “So this is why we’re in the early days of the biggest fiber investment cycle in history.”
Several government programs are funding rural fiber deployment, including the American Rescue Plan, the U.S. Treasury’s Capital Projects Fund, FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund and the USDA’s Rural Utilities Service “Reconnect” program. But, in 2021, Congress passed legislation to provide $42.3 billion for rural broadband through the BEAD program to infuse broadband into the areas that are persistently beyond the digital divide.
The BEAD program placed the states in charge of designating the internet service providers to cover the areas in need. The NTIA has approved the processes of all the states and territories, and 41 of 56 states and territories have begun selecting internet service providers. Currently, five states have completed their process for selecting ISPs and are ready to go with their BEAD deployments.
The uncertainty introduced by the NTIA’s pause makes it difficult for the fiber industry to prepare for the deployment of broadband equipment, knowing when to order fiber and other supplies, or when to hire additional workers, or plan where crews need to be assigned or when to get permits.
There are three states that submitted their final proposals already and are just waiting on approval. Another handful of states are ready to submit final proposals, including West Virginia.
Fiber figures prominently in the proposals for West Virginia, Delaware, Louisiana and Nevada. The extension is designed to provide states with time to adjust for anticipated program changes that the NTIA is expected to provide in the coming weeks.
“The states are waiting on NTIA guidance for program changes from the new administration,” Bolton said. “Louisiana, Delaware and Nevada have been stuck in a holding pattern and are ready to go as soon as Commerce allows them to start. West Virginia, Pennsylvania and a handful of other states are waiting to be able to submit their final proposals and the other states will be stacking up over the summer.”
Bolton is not worried that the new rules will take away from fiber’s dominance in the BEAD build out. “Every state knows that getting fiber out is going to be the best investment for economic development,” Bolton said. “It is a catalyst for private investment.”
Bolton would prefer, however, that if the NTIA makes changes they would be optional, so that states could pick and choose what they believe will help accelerate and reduce bureaucracy for them. “Some of them may not want to have to go back and redo their process at this late date,” he said.
FBA does support the Speed for BEAD bill because it proposes to streamline and accelerate the deployment program. But the association is wary of any government action that would cause delays in the beginning of the BEAD allocations.
“Unfortunately, we’ve lost half a year, and we’re at risk of losing the build season this year. You can’t plow fiber into the ground in the winter,” Bolton said. “Hopefully, we will hear some guidance from NTIA in the next few weeks so we can get back on track, because the whole country is ready to go. We’ve already waited three and a half years for this to happen.”
